This book examines the role of law in women’s involvement in and their exit from indoor prostitution. It examines the historic development of the existing legal framework and the resulting polarised contemporary legal and policy framings of prostitution which have produced and reproduce two distinct ‘ideal’ legal subjects — the vulnerable victim and public nuisance that is the street prostitute and the agentic, entrepreneurial indoor prostitute.

Addressing the origins of these two subjects of prostitution and examining the discursive frameworks which have led to their solidification in law, this book aims to provide a robust, methodologically and theoretically sound evaluation of the law’s construction of indoor prostitution and the contested legal frameworks which emerged in response. Analysing empirical data from 53 women, 8 practitioners and three case studies of the law in action, and adopting a critical realist methodology, this book provides a detailed socio-legal examination of the law surrounding prostitution from the perspective of those it seeks to regulate. It is intended to provide evidence and guidance to support legislators and policy makers, and support for practitioners advocating for women involved in indoor prostitution. This work is timely given attention to the regulation of prostitution locally, regionally and globally, and the potential gender equality implications of different regulatory models.

Helen Easton has recently completed a PhD in Law at Macquarie Law School, Australia. She is currently employed as a sessional academic across Criminology, Sociology, and Law at Macquarie University and Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies at University of Sydney, Australia. She also works as a senior researcher for the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW. Prior to this, Helen spent 18 years in London as an academic, researcher and policy advisor in a range of roles, most recently as Senior Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Criminology at London South Bank University (LSBU), UK.